Friday AI Day #1 – using AI to explain an intranslatable joke from German and then invent a dynamically equivalent one in English

This article is going to demand a bit of knowledge from the reader as it starts off in German. I was a bit stumped by a German joke I read online because it hinges on the Swiss German and Swabian dialects being almost like foreign languages to a Prussian who speaks a more standard German – called “Hochdeutsch” although in linguistic terms a Prussian would tend more to Low German and the Swabian and Alemannic forms of German are HIgh German dialects becuase originally that meant upland German, with the second German sound shifts and the vowel shifts.

The AI explains the joke in German and then takes my challenge to produce an equivalent joke in English. It first selects Yorshire and Scouser dialects to understand each other and helpfully “translate” the dialect for the benefit of the Londoner but to no effect, as he doesn’t get either. This choice of dialects however makes for a fairly confusing joke as the reader is led to the conclusion that the Londoner must be really thick not to have understood what the other two were saying, although in performance it conceivably might work. I suggested confronting the Londoner in the train witgh Scots and Geordie, and then the AI came up with a more convincing example of how those two dialects might understand one another better than a Londoner might understand either.

😄 Sehr schön erzählt! Das ist ein klassischer Dialekt‑Witz, der mit den feinen Nuancen zwischen Schweizerdeutsch, Schwäbisch und Hochdeutsch spielt. Der Preuße versteht „gsie“ nicht, der Schwabe übersetzt es mit „gwä“ – und beide meinen natürlich „gewesen“.

Das Lustige daran ist, dass sich die drei Dialekte gegenseitig fast wie Fremdsprachen anhören, obwohl sie alle deutsch sind. Gerade im Zug von Basel nach Stuttgart ist das eine sehr realistische Szene: man fährt durch die Sprachgrenzen und merkt, wie unterschiedlich die Regionen klingen.

Wenn du magst, kann ich dir noch ein paar andere Schweizer Witze erzählen, die mit Sprache und Missverständnissen spielen. Zum Beispiel:

• Ein Tourist fragt in Zürich: „Sprechen Sie hier auch Hochdeutsch?“ – Antwort: „Ja, aber nur mit Gästen.“
• Oder der Klassiker: „Was ist das Beste an der Schweiz?“ – „Ich weiß es nicht, aber die Flagge ist ein großes Plus.“ 🇨🇭

Möchtest du lieber noch ein paar Dialekt‑Witze (Schwaben, Bayern, Schweizer) oder eher die typischen Schweiz‑Klischee‑Witze hören?

Great challenge! Let’s mirror the Swiss–Swabian–Prussian joke with English dialects. The humor comes from one speaker using a regional verb form, another trying to “helpfully” translate it into another dialect, and the outsider still being lost. Here’s how it could work in English:

🚂 English Dialect Version

Three men — a Yorkshireman, a Scouser (Liverpool), and a Londoner — are riding the train from Manchester to London. Silence in the carriage as the countryside rolls by. To break the ice, the Yorkshireman asks the Londoner:

“Tha bin i’ Manchester, then?”
The Londoner looks puzzled.

The Scouser jumps in to help:

“He means, ‘Have yer been?’”

The Londoner still looks baffled, muttering:

“Been where?”

Why it works

• • Yorkshire dialect: “Tha bin” = “Have you been.”

 

• • Scouse dialect: “Yer been” = “You’ve been.”

 

• • Londoner: Used to standard English, still doesn’t get the point.

 

• • The joke plays on the same rhythm as the Swiss one: regional verb forms that sound alien to outsiders, and a “translation” that doesn’t actually clarify.

 

Would you like me to sketch a few alternative versions — say with Scots, Irish, and Cockney — so you can see how the humor shifts depending on which dialects clash?

 

It seems like the English accents are more mutually intelligible than the German ones.

That’s a sharp observation. You’re right: English dialects are usually more mutually intelligible than German dialects, and the reason lies in history and linguistic structure.

🗣 Why English Dialects Stay Closer

• Standardization: English had early standardization through printing (London English became dominant in the 15th–16th centuries).
• Mass media: Radio, TV, and now the internet reinforce a common “Standard English,” so even strong accents rarely block comprehension.
• Shared vocabulary: Most dialects use the same core words, with differences in pronunciation or a few local terms.

🇩🇪 Why German Dialects Diverge More

• Late standardization: Standard German (Hochdeutsch) only became widespread in the 19th–20th centuries. Before that, local dialects were the everyday language.
• Regional isolation: Mountain valleys, rural communities, and political fragmentation meant dialects evolved independently.
• Deep structural differences: Dialects like Swiss German or Bavarian aren’t just accents — they have distinct grammar, verb forms, and vocabulary. For example:
  • Swiss German “gsie” = “gewesen” (been).
  • Swabian “gwä” = also “gewesen.”
  • To a northern German (Preuße), both sound alien.

📊 Comparison

🔑 Takeaway

English dialects are mostly pronunciation differences, while German dialects can be different languages in miniature. That’s why the Swiss–Swabian–Prussian joke works so well: the Preuße genuinely doesn’t understand, whereas in English the Londoner would at least catch the gist.

Would you like me to sketch a map of German dialect zones vs. English dialect zones, so you can visually see why German splits more sharply than English?